Nottinghamshire man jailed over knifepoint robbery at post office

Ashton Dellamonica held a knife to the throat of a member of the family who ran the post office at Newton on Trent, after walking into the premises with an accomplice. Mark Watson, prosecuting, told Lincoln Crown Court: "There was violence. The postmaster was pushed to the floor. "More violence was used on a member of his family. She was pushed and grabbed by the throat. She describes having a knife held to her throat. She was also punched to the jaw." The robbers, who hid their faces by wearing motorcycle helmets, then demanded cash. They took the contents of the safe and emptied the till of cash and stamps as well as taking cigarettes. The two men fled on the stolen motorcycle they had used to travel to the village. Mr Watson said: "The total amount taken was in the region of £4,750 made up largely of cash and stamps. "The police were called and a dog handler found the defendant hiding in a field not far away. Close to him was cash, stamps and cigarettes. The knife had been discarded close to the location and the motorcycle had been abandoned." Dellamonica ,27, of Porchester Close, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, admitted charges of robbery, taking a vehicle without consent and possession of an offensive weapon arising out of the raid on the morning of May 10. The court heard that at the time of the offence he was on bail following an incident in which he attacked a man in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. The man, who was walking with a friend along Foster Street in Kirkby heading for a Cost Cutter supermarket, was initially chased on foot but Dellamonica continued the chased in his car running over the man's foot and then striking him again as he tried to escape into an alleyway. Dellamonica admitted charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified as a result of that matter on 9 April this year. He was given a six-year jail sentence for the robbery with a 12-month consecutive sentence for the April 9 incident. He was also banned from driving for three-and-a-half years. Judge Simon Hirst, passing sentence, told him: "The robbery falls into the category of a professionally planned offence. The vehicle you used was stolen and you identified a post office in an out of the way village that no doubt you thought was a soft target." Andrew Wesley, in mitigation, said that the guilty pleas entered by Dellamonica could be seen as an indication of his remorse. Mr Wesley said: "The escalation of his offending from dangerous driving and vehicle taking to robbery is largely inexplicable. "He will come out of prison older following a period of reflection."